Monday, August 29, 2011

 

Bushy Park and Hampton Court


No, we are not wandering in the country.
We are walking in a huge park, close to the River Thames just to the west of London. This is Bushy Park, established as a hunting park for HenryVIII. The king had built Hampton Court Palace adjacent to the park.





Ha! A reindeer with 2 bodies!
A push me pull you!









We took dozens of pictures of the deer.

You can see that we had not actually moved far from the car park.









I took a picture of Bill taking a picture of me taking a picture of the deer and Bill taking a picture!










Many of the pictures here today are from Bill's camera. I think the settings on mine were not quite right. I do have this habit of knocking settings!
But here is a deer picture of mine.





























The park was beautifully landscaped and 300 years ago a large pond with a fountain in the middle was included in the plans.
It has recently been renovated.
It is known as the Diana Fountain - not that Diana!
It might be the goddess of old, Diana - she was, of course, the goddess of hunting.

Bill called it "They Went That Way".
A friend in Canada commented that they seem very placid geese to stand still and pose for the camera.
I guess the geese, like the deer, are accustomed to people.












We crossed what is now a busy road to Hampton Court Gardens......through the Lion gate.


















The main entrance to the palace was covered in scaffolding and draped material to keep the weather off - not very impressive for the tourists who arrive in droves in the summer high season.
So here is a web picture of Hampton Court as we would want to see it.
The sky looked very much like that. We had already spent some time sheltering under a tree in the park, as toreential rain fell.


The chimneys were amazing.
I wonder if all 800 rooms had fireplaces!















Hampton Court is right by the River Thames.
We walked out onto the bridge. There would have been things to do on the south side of the river - an art exhibition at the locks, for example.
We will return another time to explore more.

I had intended not to put photographs of strangers onto the blog this time - but I couldn't resist this one from Bill.




















We walked back to Bushy Park - stopping agin to shelter from a heavy shower.































The stream had been created as part of the landscaping.

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Bushy Park and Hampton Court
posted by Grandma P on Monday, August 29, 2011